Essay Sample on Prediction of Occupational Success: Examining Impact of Student Behavior at Age 12

Introduction

Everyone desires success in various aspects of life, such as financially, socially, psychologically, and professionally. As individuals already have the potentials to develop a successful life, there are various factors that can be used to predict one's occupational success in the future. According to Spengler et al. (2015), the behavior and characteristic of students at age 12 can be used to predict their occupational success at the age of 40. The major student's behaviors identified to have significant influence include rule-breaking and defiance of parental authority. In the other study, Kasser et al. (1993) found that financial aspiration as the key purpose in life can also affect development of individuals. Parental socioeconomic status plays a great role in growth of students and influences the goal they desire to achieve in life. Moreover, the study conducted by Babiak et al. (2010) found a critical link between the individual behavior and characteristic of corporate psychopathy, both of which have a significant impact on a person's success in life. Considering all these studies, I can observe that the success in the life of an individual is closely associated with their behavior and characteristics while they grow up, their financial aspirations, and psychopathy in the corporate world.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The topic is the importance of the topic is that it helps one to learn the aspects that matter in life. Through an in-depth analysis of what individuals should put much of their efforts to achieve, one can get a clear picture of the various factors that interact to make things appear the way they are. For example, having a successful career is a reflection of good perceptions, attitudes, behavior, and characteristics an individual acquired in the course of their life. The accumulated experience, skills, and knowledge, coupled with the inherent character and behavior as well as their financial perception really matters as far as the individual's future success is concerned. My thesis statement argues that there is a strong positive correlation between success in life with an individual's behavior and characteristics while growing up, financial aspirations, and corporate psychopathy. The importance of this statement can be drawn from the weight it lays on the individual's cumulative characteristics in the course of life to the resultant success factor in future. For that reason, it becomes clear that molding one's behavior and characteristics while young, influencing positive financial aspiration and enhancing positive psychological adjustment can be an invaluable step to living a successful life in the future.

The following is the summary of the three articles. The first article, "Student Characteristics and Behaviors at Age 12 Predict Occupational Success 40 Years Later..." presents an intuitive insight into the cause-effect relationship behind the occupational success of individuals in their middle age. In this article, the authors examined the influence of childhood intelligence, parental socioeconomic status, and student's behavior and characteristics on their occupational success and income. Spengler et al. (2015) identified students' behavior and characteristics as including inattentiveness, responsibility, pessimism, impatience, school entitlement, sense of inferiority, teacher-rated studiousness, and defiance of parental authority. There is a direct effect of students' behavior and characteristics to their occupational success and income in their future careers. The second article, "A Dark Side of the American Dream: Correlates of Financial Success as a Central Life Aspiration," relays an important finding concerning success in life given an individual's financial aspiration. The authors of this article, Tim Kasser and Richard Ryan, examined the hypothesis that the expectancy and value for money are negatively correlated with the well-being and mental health of college students, especially if it is the center of their aspirations. The authors argue that when students are so much imbued with the expectations of gaining extra-ordinary financial success, the aspiration can have a great impact on their individual well-being, behavior, and characteristics, and mental health. Higher financial aspirations have been found to have a strong positive link with many behavioral disorders, low social productivity, and global adjustments. The higher financial aspirations among students also have deleterious effects on the materialistic worldviews as well as goals and values. The third article, "Corporate Psychopathy: Talking the Walk" brings another interesting finding on the influence of corporate psychopathy in today's market. The authors, Paul Babiak, Craig Neumann, and Robert Hare, carried out this study to examine psychopathy and its correlates among business professionals. In this research article, the authors found that there was a positive correlation between psychopathy and the in-house rating of charisma of presentation styles such as creativity, good communication skills, and critical thinking. The authors further argued that psychopathy could be negatively associated with ratings of individual responsibility and performance in such aspects as management skills, teamwork, and job accomplishments.

Based on the summary of the three articles, there are various concerns addressed in each of them. The major concerns that can be noted in the first article, "Student Characteristics and Behaviors at Age 12 Predict Occupational Success 40 Years Later..." is that the behaviors and characteristics of students hold a significant position regarding the success in their future occupational success. I have learned that the behavior and characteristics of an individual have a great influence on success in their future careers. I can say that this argument is true because a person's characteristics arise from their intuition and can greatly affect the way they work or handle responsibilities at their workplaces. Such behavior and characteristics as rule-breaking and defiance of parental authority by students, especially at age 12 show the kind of workers the students would become in the business world. The personal responsibility, self-esteem, and assertiveness are some of the good characteristics each parent would like to see in their children while they grow up because they are indicators of occupational success in the future. On the other hand, Kasser et al. (1993) brought another great revelation concerning students' success in their future careers on the basis of wealth and financial expectancies. According to Kasser et al. (1993), students who hold on very high value and expectancies on wealth and financial success may end up being negatively influenced by such aspirations. The aspiration of higher financial success as the key purpose in life affects an individual's well-being and mental health negatively. Moreover, Babiak et al. (2010) also examined the effects of psychopathy and its correlates in the corporate world. The findings of this research study showed a positive correlation between psychopathy and the in-house rating of charisma such as creativity and responsibility of an individual, which consequently influence the occupational success of an individual.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the real-life aspects of an individual, such as occupational success and income, are strongly associated with individual's factors including behavior and characteristics while growing up, financial aspiration, and psychopathy. The individual behavior and characteristics include rule-breaking and defiance of parental authority. Other factors, such as parental socioeconomic status, also have a significant influence on students' future occupational success and income. Apart from that, higher financial aspirations have been found to be negatively correlated with personal well-being and mental health. Moreover, psychological adjustments and corporate psychopathy also play essential roles in the occupational success and income of an individual.

References

Babiak, P., Neumann, C. S., & Hare, R. D. (2010). Corporate psychopathy: Talking the walk. Behavioral sciences & the law, 28(2), 174-193.

Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1993). A dark side of the American dream: Correlates of financial success as a central life aspiration. Journal of personality and social psychology, 65(2), 410.

Spengler, M., Brunner, M., Damian, R. I., Ludtke, O., Martin, R., & Roberts, B. W. (2015). Student characteristics and behaviors at age 12 predict occupational success 40 years later, over and above childhood IQ and parental socioeconomic status. Developmental psychology, 51(9), 1329.